THE BUSINESS OF ENTERTAINMENT

This public conversation is part of the Communications Studies course “The Business of Entertainment” taught by Bill Lancaster. This course goes beyond the glitz and glamour to the what, why and how of making entertainment.

Storytelling professional Ellis Henican visited Northeastern University as part of Professor Bill Lancaster’s class called Business of Entertainment. Ellis, a born and raised southerner, is best known for his political contributions on Fox News’s hit programs such as The O’Reilly Factor and Fox News Watch. What most people don’t know is that Ellis is a storyteller in all media mediums, not just on television. Lancaster says that though Howard Stern claims to be the king of media, Ellis wears the true crown, having major success in most media realms not only in political television, but also books, journalism and radio.

Ellis came into class with an incomparable energy, starting off by making a simple story of how he broke his toe comedic and engaging. At that moment, I recognized that he was deserving of the crown. We got the chance to hear his thoughts about the industry and how he got his start as a journalist at the Kentucky Post. He now lives in New York City where during the week he is a columnist for Newsday and makes appearances on television, and on the weekends he is the host of his own radio show called The Ellis Henican Show. In his spare time, Ellis works on novels like his bestseller, Home Team, about the New Orleans Saints’ Superbowl win after post hurricane Katrina.

For an even lighter side of Ellis, check out his voice acting skills on the Cartoon Network show Sealab 2021. One of Adult Swim’s first shows is a hilarious take on several co-workers living in an underwater lab and their shenanigans. His next book will be about the Florida Governor Rick Scott and his re-election campaign. The biggest take away from his visit is that no matter how technology influences the media, a well executed story will always be the most important aspect in all disciplines of the entertainment industry.

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Ellis Henican

ELLIS HENICAN is a New York Times bestselling author, a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper columnist and a popular TV news pundit. He is also the voice of Stormy on the hit Cartoon Network series Sealab 2021. Ellis is a born storyteller. His How to Catch a Russian Spy, written with American double-agent Naveed Jamali (Scribner), was called “the funniest book I read” by Washington Post critic Carlos Lozada and is being made into a feature film by director Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer, The Amazing Spider Man) for Twentieth Century Fox.

Ellis wrote the ground-breaking Vigilance with longtime New York City police commissioner Ray Kelly (Hachette Books) and Worth Dying For with Navy SEAL commander Rorke Denver (Howard Books), a follow-up to their special-ops bestseller Damn Few (Hyperion). Making It in America, with furniture titan John Bassett III (Center Street), tells how U.S. companies in the Trump era can survive foreign competition and keep American jobs at home. ,Read More